Headsets of 2020

[kilo3]

Does anyone have any real world experience with headsets?
Since I'm on the verge of having two on the road at once, I thought it would be nice to get some intercoms between bikes.
I've had terrible luck with youtube reviews, they are all regurgitated canned sponsored bullshit.
I'm leaning towards the cardo freecom 2+ but if anyone would have some input on usage that would be great.

My main concern is if we get too far apart, with bluetooth, does the coms automatically link back up if they were previously paired?
Any other suggestions for a mid range coms set?

[knyte]

I've had great luck with Lexin.  Specifically these, but I think they have a new generation now.  As expected, the range between bikes varies with terrain.  Open and clear - nearly a km if not a bit more.  In the city - as little maybe a block or two; it depends.  I got them for significantly less; not sure why there was a price increase.  I think a pair was $130 -ish CAD; must have been a sale.  Great value for the money - a bit difficult to hear at highway speeds, but certainly good enough to let my caller know I'll just pull over and we can chat.  No problem with audio quality at all in the city or speeds below 100 km/h.  Everyone I've called with them can't tell I'm on a bike; the noise cancellation is very good.

To answer your last question, if my g/f and I are too far apart, yes they will disconnect - but there is a fairly easy-to-feel-with-gloves button to link up again.  Hasn't ever been a problem.

• Cons: FM is a nice-to-have, but in order to find it I have check the manual just about every time.  There aren't many buttons, and with a lot of features, less buttons means awkward moments of figuring stuff out.  It's far easier to just stream something from my phone.
• It's possible to link up to 4 of them, but each rider must maintain their position in line, as in rider 1, 2, 3, 4.  If 3 and 4 switch places, for example, things get a bit weird.  Not sure I'd even want to try linking more than two together, TBH.  The process for linking 3 or more is a bit nuts.  For two, though - couldn't be easier nor more stable.

Cardo seems to be the most recommended.

Intercoms between two bikes is absolutely a game-changer!  Very easy to negotiate traffic and ride strategically when you don't have to rely on hand signals!

Edited June 18, 2020 by knyte

[piotrek]

I have had great experience with Cardo PackTalk over last 3 seasons. Paid a small fortune, but turned out to be a good investment. FM was a must, and DMC mesh works very well and over a good distance. Sound is very good I think... and there is an upgrade path to a better set of speakers by JBL (not required IMO). Noise cancellation works very well... so I am told.

Bought Cardo Freecom 2+ for my daughter and she really likes it... again, has FM and same speakers as the PackTalk... but no DMC. We pair using BT and all is good... sounds clear each way.

I did have a hw issue with the PackTalk... still worked, but wouldn't take a firmware update (USB issue). Cardo replaced the unit without any fuss... free shipping each way, across the border. I was very impressed.

No experience with other brands.

[kilo3]

2 minutes ago, piotrek said:

Bought Cardo Freecom 2+ for my daughter and she really likes it... again, has FM and same speakers as the PackTalk... but no DMC. We pair using BT and all is good... sounds clear each way.

Do you feel the bluetooth is is good enough for a pair of riders? I don't foresee ever being very far away from the other unit.

[maximo]

I've used the Sena SMH-10 for a long time. Just yesterday I ordered the Cardo Packtalk Bold. I plan on putting them on and heading out on a ride this weekend. Hopefully I'll get it sorted out well enough to give you my thoughts. 

[piotrek]

18 minutes ago, kilo3 said:

Do you feel the bluetooth is is good enough for a pair of riders? I don't foresee ever being very far away from the other unit.

I have only used these two together in a rider-pillion scenario, but I bought the Freecom with rider-rider in mind as she's getting licensed in about a year. The Freecom unit is very slim, compared with the PackTalk.

[daboo]

Bluetooth headsets are a great accessory if you're going with another person.  There are some considerations to make.

• First, who will you be pairing with?  If just one other person and you're buying for both...get whatever you like.  You can go inexpensive with an eBay model, or spend lots of $$$ on a Cardo or Sena.  It makes little difference.  The eBay units will work fine.  The leader of a motorcycle "Meetup" group north of me bought two and uses them all the time when he's leading a group ride.  He has one, and he gives the other to the end or "sweep" rider.  Range is fine.
• If you're thinking that you might potentially someday possibly ride with someone else also...find out what brand they have and stick with that brand.  BT headsets pair in one of two ways.  Group intercom.  Or universal intercom.  
  Group intercom is within the same brand.  The advantage here is you get more "features".  Universal intercom is using one of the two cell phone pairing channels you have available.  That can be an issue if you use a GPS, your smartphone, a radar detector...and are pairing with a BT headset from any other manufacturer.  You have two channels available in the above scenario and four devices.
• Mesh could be useful...but not with just two headsets.  On one ride, we had three of us with Sena BT headsets.  Rider 1 paired with Rider 2.  As Rider 3, I paired with Rider 2.  I thought all was great...till Rider 2 decided she wanted to listen to her music and cut us both off.  With "mesh", Rider 1 and I would've connected.
  But here's the limitation I see.  All three of us would've had to have "mesh" BT headsets.  I have a Sena 10C Pro.  It's fairly recent...but doesn't have mesh.  And even though several manufacturers have their own "mesh" products...you still can only use it with the same brand.

So if your only use on a BT headset is with the other bike...go cheap and buy from eBay.  It'll work fine and you'll get a chance to explore the ins and outs of BT headsets without spending a lot of $$$.

 

As far as reconnecting goes, they generally will do so.  I took a ride to Mt. Baker yesterday with a friend.  We both have Senas.  When we parted ways, my Sena kept trying to find his again.  There's a memory built into these that remembers past pairings.  So when you turn the BT headset on, it will search for a device it has paired with before, whether that is a GPS or another BT headset.

Chris

[Soullancer]

Cardo packtalk bold is the way to go... Good volume, quality sound, microphone is a no brainer because it sends clear voice thanks to the noise cancelling of the wind. Other pros are mentioned above.

You get what you pay for...

 

 

[HGP61]

My two riding buddies and myself went for the Sena range. "Friend A" got in first with a quite expensive Shoei helmet with built in coms system While cheaper "Friend B" and myself opted for the SENA 10s Intercom. We like that we can group intercom with all three of us connected and taking part in the same conversation as we are riding. 

[Wintersdark]

11 hours ago, maximo said:

I've used the Sena SMH-10 for a long time. Just yesterday I ordered the Cardo Packtalk Bold. I plan on putting them on and heading out on a ride this weekend. Hopefully I'll get it sorted out well enough to give you my thoughts. 

I've been using one of these for many, many years.  Works great.  Cardo units tend to be what gets recommended these days, but I can't speak for them at all as I've never even seen one in person and all my riding buddy's have Sena's, so... *shrugs*.

TBH, though, all I really care  about is the bluetooth connection to my phone.  Then I can tell my garage door to open and close, I can call people/take calls, listen to music, listen to the radio, all by voice.  

[DavidS]

I got the Sena 20S a few years ago, and generally I like it a lot. When riding alone, it is great for streaming the music from my phone, and it uses voice commands to skip a song and a few other simple, but useful items I can't remember right now.

They are NOT perfect though, when connecting with other riders, they can be finicky, and sometimes they just won't connect. On the plus side, if you connect with someone, it will usually automatically reconnect with that person the next time you ride with them again. This is great for folks you ride with frequently, as you don't have to do anything except press the jog button on the Sena and you will be reconnected. Radio doesn't work very well for me, so I don't even try anymore.

In general, I have a love / hate relationship with my Sena. It is great for listening to my music library from my iphone while riding, pretty good using it to talk with other riders that I have spent the time connecting to, but sometimes it just decides it doesn't want to work, and you just have to wait until it decides to connect while you are already on your ride.

One tip I learned if you are going on a ride with a few folks is to take the units off the helmets, and have one person hold all of them and shake them a few times. This starts the connection process for all the units, and I have better luck connecting this way than manually trying to connect each unit to the group. When the light flashes blue, you know you are connected. If one of the units is still flashing red - no connection.

[Convair77]

I just grabbed a Cardo Freecom 4+, as my first bluetooth headset.  Previously I just had a plug in pair of helmet speakers, so this is my first experience.  I specifically wanted the JBL sound that the 4+ and above offers, and didn't want to buy the lower Freecom offerings and then pay extra to get the JBL speakers.  I ride solo, so intercom wasn't a concern either.

Got the unit quickly and it went in pretty easily in my LS2 Challenger GT helmet.  After some messing around with the speaker placement and updating the firmware - it works great!  The voice commands are a cool "feature" but only work half of the time and honestly it's not that big of a deal to me.  Phone calls seems to be pretty simple and from what I'm told, I sound good at highway speeds.  Overall, can't complain!  I'm waiting on my Ram mount to get here, so I can control some of the features via the Cardo app, but for now I'm happy!

[draco_1967]

As was said before, if you are just riding with one other person (the same person all the time), get whatever you want. The Freecom 2 seems like a good option if it's just you and a parter. 

I have a group of 4-6 people that I ride with, and we all went with the Packtalk (before the Bold came out). We are going on 4 seasons now with them. We had 3 seasons with the Sena 20s before that, and gave up. The Sena was great with 2 people, but add in 3+, and it was a mess. Poor sound quality, disconnecting, inability to connect, and not water resistant for some of us. 

The Cardo has been so much better. The only issues we have had are poor volume due to mic placement (user error, not Cardo, but happens often with my friends' half helmets), and very occasionally one of us will have to restart our headset to connect to the mesh group. 98% of the time they link up automatically when in range. 

 

 

[Wintersdark]

Having read some comments here, I figure I should repeat this just in case it's not really common knowledge.  You don't need to rely on the headset's voice command options.  You can use Google Assistant/Siri as well.  On my SMH10, I need to press the "Phone" button on the headset to trigger this - the same button you'd use to take a phone call or whatever - but then you have full access to everything the voice assistant can do.  Play playlists by name, trigger smart home routines "Open my garage door" or "Broadcast I'm almost home" for example.  Even play any radio station not limited to local ones!  Have a favourite radio station at home?  You can listen while riding in another country

[kilo3]

I think I are just going to go with my gut and go for the cardo
, 220 usd from the getting spot is pale in comparison to the 6k we're going to spend on gear and a bike for da wife.